


Paint

by Quiffsandflowercrowns



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Little bit of angst, M/M, Original Character(s), Phil has one friend, dans a popular kid, not too much though, phil is anxious
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-13
Updated: 2019-02-16
Packaged: 2019-08-01 13:15:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16285262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quiffsandflowercrowns/pseuds/Quiffsandflowercrowns
Summary: Dan and Phil are in the same art class, at the same table. Dan is brilliant at art and Phil’s artistic ability is nonexistent. Their teacher puts them together to help Phil pass his exam. More than a casual friendship might occur if given time…





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Find this on tumblr as well! Quiffsandflowercrowns

For some stupid reason, it was mandatory for every pupil to take Maths, English, science, a language and an art. All the other subjects they could choose from a list. Phil was extremely excited for the subjects he had chosen, he loved science and maths- he even didn’t mind English that much, it was easy enough. There was something about getting to structure essays that made him happy. Even PE wasn’t too bad for him. Of course, school could never be fun and he was forced to take art, which, unfortunately for him was the subject he sucked at most. His problem wasn’t that he had no creativity -he had plenty but he just couldn’t put those ideas on paper. Every time he tried it turned out wonky and pretty much the opposite of what he was going for. On his very first art lesson (before he knew he was crap at it) he had drawn a self-portrait which he was rather proud of only to have the teacher come over and ask him if it was a fruit bowl. Phil didn’t like to correct his teachers so he just nodded and stayed silent. The teacher had just given him a strained smile, instantly knowing he was definitely not a gifted artist and his relationship with her had only gone downhill. To be honest she scared him a little. The only redeemable part of the 6 hours a week of nightmarish lessons was the company Phil had during the time. He had a friend Lily sat next to him and across from him sat a boy who had only just joined the school that year and was obviously way too cool to ever speak to Phil. He had brown curly hair that Phil wanted to run his hands through so much that it would have concerned anyone he told. He also had lovely brown eyes that made Phil blush and look away any time they made eye contact. He was very grateful that he didn’t have to sit alone at the table with the new kid otherwise he might just implode, forcing him to curl inwards into a void of shame. 

Lily wouldn’t stop teasing him about liking the new boy after she had come back from the toilet during class and Phil was just staring at him with a blank expression as the boy worked away, not paying any attention to Phil. Phil had used the excuse of being tired. It was one of the occasions he had had art in the morning. The excuse didn’t work, she had just laughed harder and e remembered the new boy had looked up at them and smiled. Phil had nearly exploded from blushing so hard. 

“Phiiilll,” Lily nudged him, bringing Phil back to the present and out of his thoughts. He had been staring down at his work for several minutes without moving or blinking. “You’ve blacked out on me again” She laughed. Lily was one of the class favourites, even though she wasn’t the best at art. Phil could definitely understand though, Lily was unbelievably fun. She was the kind of person to make insane references at random moments and burst into songs at inappropriate moments. He had decided when they first met that she could talk more than enough for both of them. Phil was glad that he had her as a friend, even if she was the only one. He thought he should maybe stop reflecting on things he was glad for, as he might end up being eternally stuck in a thanksgiving loop, muttering to himself. He had always had questions about Thanksgiving, it being something not celebrated in England. Like why? When? He wondered if it was like Christmas. He hoped it was. That would be nice. 

“When’s Thanksgiving?” Phil asked suddenly. Lily looked up at him from her work then narrowed her eyes. He was surprised she was still amazed by his weirdness.  
“Why would I know you weirdo.” She laughed at him again and went back to her drawing. She was drawing a charcoal portrait of Phil posing in a box. He remembered the photoshoot before she started the drawing. The box was weird and wooden, slightly more like a coffin than a box. He had scratched himself on one of the loose nails in the inside of the box and had a mini panic attack (to the amusement of Lily) about getting tetanus. Her drawing seemed to be going very well, it was really realistic and made Phil feel just a little bit jealous of her talent. He looked down at his own. He was trying to draw a teapot and cup that he had found in a cupboard in the classroom. He admired how pretty they were. They were light iridescent pink with elegant gold trim and Phil definitely wasn’t doing them any justice. Somehow, he had made them look like deformed hot pink elephant creatures. He sighed and decided that he would have to start again. He got up and walked over to the drawer where he could find some more paper, only for him to open it and find that there was no paper left. Mrs. Michaels was busy with another student and he was too awkward to go up and ask her to find more. He reluctantly went back to his seat and sighed, glaring at his rubbish piece of art, willing it to be better without him having to do any of the work. In his peripheral vision, he saw the boy across the table from him look up and take out one of his earphones. 

“Do you need some paper?” He asked, “I hoard it cause this place always runs out.” He pulled a piece of paper out of his folder and handed it to Phil. Phil blinked and took it. He smiled gently, too afraid to look directly at him. 

“Thanks.” He mumbled. The boy grinned at him, forcing Phil to look up at him. Saying that Phil was taken aback by how stunning he was would be a severe understatement. It felt as though all of the air had been pushed out of him and Phil looked down, trying to force the blush out of his cheeks. He looked over at Lily who was sitting obliviously with her headphones on.

“Also, it’s the fourth Thursday in November.” The boy said to him. Phil frowned, slightly confused. 

“Thanksgiving,” He clarified, “It’s always on the fourth Thursday in November. I don’t know why. They should just make it like Christmas. Just choose one day, jeez.” Phil was a little taken aback that the mysterious boy across from him- who hung out with the crowd that liked to terrorize him- was chatting to him like they’d known each other for ages. Phil laughed. 

“Thanksgiving needs to get itself together” Phil joked back. The boy smiled along with him and then looked back down at his work. Like Lily, the boy was also one of the teacher’s favourites (trust him to get stuck at the table full of talent) and Phil was as jealous of his work as he was Lilys’s although he couldn’t entirely figure out what it was from his upside-down position. The boy put his other headphone back in and Phil felt a little sad that that was the end of their conversation. 

An hour of torture later and he thought he had improved his work ever so slightly and by that he meant that he was praying that his watercolour skills would be better when his “painting” was dry (it wouldn’t be). The bell rang and Phil had to resist jumping up from his seat with joy. It was break, so he had 20 minutes to relax until he had to go to his next class. He stuffed all of his possessions into his backpack and laid his paintings up to dry before waiting on Lily so they could leave. The boy had already left before Phil got back to the table. 

“What was that between you and him huh? Is there something new I should know about?” Lily wiggled her eyebrows at Phil. She knew about his not-so-small crush on the boy. He had come out to her a little over 3 months ago and she had taken up the role of trying to set him up with every guy she knew. It made a nice change from her trying to set him up with every single girl she knew. He pondered over why she was so obsessed with his love life. Not that it was a bad thing, he quite enjoyed having someone to giggle with when one of their crushes walked past them in the hallways. He also enjoyed being allowed to stay over at Lily’s now that their parents could be fairly certain that they weren’t going to be doing anything weird. Phil had asked once before he came out and boy was that a conversation he wished he’d never had. 

They left the classroom together and walked towards the library where they had their hangout spot where they gathered at break and lunch. There was a small alcove in the back of a library where a display stand used to be. It was wide and deep enough for two people to sit in face to face. It was far away from all of the tables so they could speak about whatever they wanted, without being overheard and judged. Phil loved sitting there and was happy about spending most of his time there. They strolled through the front grounds and were forced to walk past the group of popular kids, none of whom particularly liked Lily or Phil. They heard footsteps running up to them and a group of the popular guys ran past them. Phil felt someone push him and he whipped around to frown at them when he saw who it was. It was the boy from art. He stopped running and looked at phil. The boy was slightly taller than him so Phil had to look up at him a little. His made a little mental note to himself to remember that for the future.

“Oh, sorry Phil! Didn’t mean to run into you!” He smiled at Phil as one of the other boys yelled at them. 

“Come on Dan!” The boy- who Phil now knew was named Dan ran off and re-joined the other guys, waving back at Phil as he went. Lily pulled him away and they walked towards the library. 

“Well, we know his name now,” She nudged him and laughed ““Dan and Phil” has a nice ring to it doesn’t it.” She said a little too loudly for Phil’s liking. He elbowed her gently in the ribs and told her to shut up. He and Lily had just entered the library when he stopped and grabbed Lily’s arm, forcing her to stop and turn around to look at him.

“How did Dan know my name?” Phil questioned, “I didn’t know his.” Lily just looked at him and raised her eyebrows. 

“Maybe he’s just more observant than you,” she answered shrugging, “not that that’s hard” she added grinning at him. Phil wasn’t stupid, he knew he wasn’t, he was just very oblivious to the things that were going on around him. He struggled to read people and sometimes the way people acted straight up confused him. He shrugged trying to let it go whist they walked into the library. He promised himself he’d be less oblivious to people and vowed that tomorrow he would start trying to make more effort to talk to Dan. 


	2. Chapter 2

The rest of the day passed by in a boring blur and Phil had made it home just before half four, excited to sit on the sofa with a bowl of cereal and a good TV show. Later that night, Phil couldn’t sleep. He was weirdly excited to talk to Dan in art tomorrow. He had it first thing and he knew that he gains some confidence when he’s tired so he was determined to stay awake as long as possible. He had watched a total of two horror movies on the small TV in his bedroom and was way too terrified to sleep. He climbed out of bed and looked int the full-length mirror on the inside of his closet. Now is the perfect time to practice some conversation starters. 

“How’s it going?” He said into the mirror, nodding his head a little. Ew, he thought, no. That was just weird. He would not be using that as his opener to talk to Dan tomorrow.   
“Good morning! How are you?” Nope that one was weird and formal. Phil didn’t need to seem like a creepy person. Maybe if he ran up to Dan and just started kissing him things would go better. Wait no, Phil thought that’s extremely creepy and he would probably end up getting suspended for attacking someone. Plus, he didn’t really want to end up pushing Dan away, not when he had the confidence to talk to him now. 

“Hiya!” He said enthusiastically. Nope, that was over the top. He didn’t want to be seen as too keen. Phil was about to say another one of his sentence starters (it began with “Did you know” but the rest of the sentence was uninteresting) when his bedroom door opened. His brother Martyn came in, his hair sticking up every direction and a scary frown on his face. 

“What the hell are you doing? Shut up.” He frowned at Phil then turned and left. Phil sighed and crawled back into his bed. He considered just making his opening line up on the spot, but he was fairly sure that he would regret it. He fell asleep smiling and for once was excited for art. 

The next morning, Phil woke up to the sound of him getting a bunch of texts. All of them were from Lily. Apparently, she was ill and it had nothing at all to do with the fact that they had an English quiz today, which he had totally forgotten about. She was telling him to ask her teachers if there was any homework for her to do whilst she was off. He considered asking her why she couldn’t just email the teachers but he prided himself on being a good Samaritan so he decided he would just do it for her. He was also going to try and sneak a photo of the English quiz so when she came back she would know what the questions were because he was just that nice.

He always walked to school with his older brother but today he was so eager to get to that first class that he abandoned him and strode off ahead (which was impressive for Phil as he was significantly shorter than Martyn). He really hoped that Martyn wouldn’t question him as he was a really awful liar and if he was asked he’d probably blurt out the truth and then he’d never hear the end of it. Luckily enough for him, his brother just assumed he was being his weird self and didn’t bother to ask. Martyn knew the answer would be stupid anyway. 

Phil made it to school way earlier than he ever had before. The library wasn’t even open yet so he had to stand outside in the cold until the librarian arrived. He knew her very well and they had become close to friends in the few years Phil had been in the school. It wasn’t surprising, Phil and Lily had sat in the library every day and sometimes when Phil had free time he eve volunteered to help the librarian put the books back. Even though she technically wasn’t a teacher, she was Phil’s favourite. She was young, only about 25 and she always wore colourful glasses and dresses with dizzying patterns. Phil admired her. 

“What are you doing here so early? What mischief are you up to?” Miss Macfarlene narrowed her eyes jokingly, and Phil chuckled.   
“Just wanted to get to my class early. Got to be prepared” Phil said hoping she wouldn’t ask any further questions. Of course, knowing him, he couldn’t have two bouts of luck in one day. She tilted her head to one side.

“Oooh. What class?” She asked him, unlocking the doors to the library and walking over to her desk to put her bags down. Phil followed her in.   
“Um…art” He said quietly. Miss Macfarlene tilted her head. He had told her before of his hatred of the subject and so she knew that he wouldn’t normally be rushing to get to a subject he hated. 

“I thought you hated art” She smiled. Phil smiled back at her weakly. He was dreading having to continue this conversation. 

“I’ve got…an um…new friend…there” Miss Macfarlene grinned at him. She was proud that he was making new friends as he’d only ever had Lily and she supposed that he might be lonely sometimes when she wasn’t there. She racked her brain for who the new friend might be. She knew most of the pupils in that class, they always came to get more paper for their art (she could never figure out why the art department didn’t just order more paper). A lot of them, she couldn’t see Phil being friends with. Phil was quiet and sweet, only opening up if you get to know him, a lot of the kids in that class were loud and a little rude. They were the kind of people Phil would not associate himself with. She shrugged to herself and sat down at her desk. She felt like she knew who he was talking about but she decided not to torture him about it. Phil smiled at her again and walked to the alcove and sat down. He always felt a little lonely when Lily was off school and he had no one to talk to. He pulled out his phone and texted Lily to ask if she was alright. The reply was almost instantaneous and Lily confirmed that she was fine she was just ‘Very tired’. Phil always admired the fact that Lily’s parents were always so worried about her that she could just say that she was tired and they’d let her stay off school. Phil hadn’t had a day off from school in years. It was always ‘Go to school and see how you feel.’ Chances are, when he got to school he would feel exactly the same, if not worse but he didn’t want to disturb his mum when she was at work so he would just stick it out. He sat down in their spot and pulled out his English textbook, hoping to get some revision in before the quiz later. He knew he was going to be fine but he always felt a little bit nervous before he had to do anything like that. Phil thought he should probably talk to someone about being anxious all the time but it made little sense to him that he would have to talk to someone about not being able to talk to people. He was pondering the infinite loop of staying silent when he realised the library was now full of people, hanging out before school and talking to their friends (blatantly ignoring the keep quiet signs) and doing last minute homework. The bell rang and Phil stood up, putting his phone back in his blazer pocket, and walked swiftly out of the library towards his class. 

Phil was the first one to the class so for a couple of seconds it was only him and Mrs. Michaels. She didn’t acknowledge him but waited until the majority of the class had filed in and then informed them they would continue their work on their folio pieces (it was 85% of their grade and Phil would be lucky to get 8.5%). Dan wasn’t there. Phil was sat alone at his desk, sad that he had worried himself so much and it didn’t seem to matter anyway. Phil reluctantly took his pieces of paper out of his folder and stared at it blankly. He had no idea what he was doing. He’d learnt several weeks ago that the key to getting through his art lessons was to pretend like he was hard at work and knew exactly what he was doing. He grabbed some watercolour paints from the cupboard along with a bowl of water and a palette and sat back down at his desk. He looked at the teacups again, feeling strangely motivated for one of the first times every. Maybe dan not being there was a good thing. Maybe he had been distracting him all this time.   
Or, Phil thought, it could just be his sleepy state making him think he was going to turn into some kind of amazing artist within a day. It was probably the latter. Phil mixed a little of the red and the white to create a lovely light pink colour. He picked up some of it with his brush and placed it gently on his page. Good start, he thought to himself, it wasn’t going absolutely horribly. The second time he went back to pick up paint he pushed it a little bit into the black and changed his lovely pink into a weird sludge brown. Phil grunted and wiped the paint off of his palette and tried to remake the pink. It didn’t work, he had made a darker shade that left weird lines in the colour next to it when added to the painting. Phil was getting tired of having to figure out what he was going to do with the nonsense over and over again and rested his head down on the table. He heard the door to the art classroom open and Mrs. Michaels said something which he didn’t hear. 

“You look like your having a bit of difficulty,” someone next to Phil said. He lifted his head up and saw Dan, who had wandered into class late and was unpacking all of his things. Phil felt as though all of the air had been kicked out of him but nonetheless he smiled gently at him. Phil was really glad that he wasn’t the one who had to start the conversation as he didn’t think any of the openers he had practiced the previous night would be appropriate for a quiet art classroom.

“Yeah, it’s not going great,” Phil laughed weakly “I’m kind of artistically challenged” Great start, Phil thought, it’s going well so far. 

“What’s your painting based on?” Dan asked coming and standing next to him. He looked from Phil’s painting to the teacups. Phil blushed, Dan was standing very close to him, almost leaning on Phil as he looked at the picture. 

“It’s really not good it is?” Phil asked trying to hide his shame. Dan looked down at him and smiled.

“Nah it’s not bad, it’s just that you don’t really seem into it. Why didn’t you paint something you liked” Dan said gently and walked back round to his side of the desk. He picked up his sketch and turned it round so Phil could see it. It was a black and white charcoal drawing of a man sitting at a piano. There was so much detail in it that Phil could even see the lines of the fingers of the man’s hands. He could practically hear the soft music that was being played. 

“See,” Dan said even more gently “I love playing the piano so I chose that as my topic. That and it’s an easy thing to write an essay about for the analysis, because pianos have a lot of history for me to bullshit about.” Phil laughed. He thought about what he liked. 

“I like video games I guess,” Phil paused trying to think about what else he liked. It was really hard being put in the spot like that and suddenly felt as though he had never felt joy in his life.

“And…food?” Phil narrowed his eyes hoping that his main two interests being video games and food wouldn’t make him seem too weird. Of course it would, he thought to himself, those aren’t exactly interesting hobbies. Dan smiled at him again.

“It’s great you have some things you like. Why not try doing something contemporary with them?” Phil really appreciated his help and actually considered asking him for more help but he felt as though that would be crossing some kind of line and he didn’t think he could handle having to talk to Dan all the time without completely falling in love. 

“So, what’s your favourite thing to eat?” Dan asked him. Phil sat there and thought for a moment. If he could only eat one thing for the rest of his life what would it be? He smiled as he found his answer. 

“I really like Haribo’s,” Phil said with a laugh. Dan grinned at him. 

“You could draw gummy bears?” Dan suggested. Phil really liked that idea. He loved colours and it surely couldn’t be that hard to draw some gummy bears, right? Phil nodded and took his laptop out of his bag. He searched for a picture of some gummy bears that he could use as his inspiration. He found one and moved the laptop so Dan could see. Dan continued grinning at him.

“That one would be perfect!” Dan said enthusiastically, Phil hoped that he would be able to get a higher mark with this than he would with those stupid teacups. Phil suddenly realised he didn’t know I he was allowed to change topics after he’d already started painting the cups. Maybe Mrs. Michaels would yell at him for trying to give up so easily. Maybe this was a bad idea after all, he thought to himself. He didn’t want to start from the beginning again but he also didn’t want to get a zero on his folio piece because then he would definitely fail. It was nearly the end of November and the folio pieces had to be handed in at the beginning of January to be marked. Mrs Michaels saw Dan leaning over Phil’s work from across the room and approached their desk at a speed that was impressive for a woman who was not even five feet tall. 

“What’s this gathering about?” She asked, her tone icy. Phil froze. He really didn’t want to be yelled at and he was in such a good mood this morning that this threatening to ruin it made him slightly angry. He looked up at Dan who had stayed pressed closely to him, now instead of looking at Phil’s laptop, he was smiling sweetly at the teacher. 

“Phil was struggling a little bit and seemed to not be enjoying what he was painting so I was helping him come up with a new idea that he might like better. Is that alright?” Dan was really good at manipulating teachers, Phil realised. Mrs. Michaels no longer looked like she was going to yell at them but she was looking softly at Dan. 

“That was nice of you,” She turned to Phil and moved Dan out of the way so that she could see the screen. She smiled and nodded at Phil. “I suppose that would be nice to do. What are you thinking of using?” She asked him. Phil paused, thinking about it. He didn’t want to use more watercolours as it was the bane of his existence and it was making him physically angry. An early death was not something he was aiming for. 

“I was just thinking of using coloured pencil. It's probably better than using the watercolours” He said quietly looking down at his new blank piece of paper.   
“Okay but Dan I don’t really want you to help him too much, it’s meant to be a solo project. Only if you have to.” She looked suspiciously between them. Then she smiled at them and walked away at her ridiculous speed. Dan looked at Phil. 

“Sorry I can’t help you more,” he said looking at Phil and biting his lip. Phil tried not to stare at his mouth for too long so as to not seem creepy but he felt as though it wasn’t entirely working. Phil shrugged and got up. For once he was excited to start drawing something.


	3. Chapter 3

On December 10th Phil realised that he had very little time left to finish his folio piece and, much to his disappointment, it still wasn’t going well. The entire time he wanted to ask Dan for help but he knew he had his own work to do and Phil didn’t want to disturb him. Phil was enjoying his art classes though, and him and Dan would talk every single lesson. Sometimes Dan would come and sit in the library with them, although many of his friends weren’t too happy with him hanging out with ‘losers’. It was eight days before the end of term for the Christmas holidays, and the mid-year report cards had been handed out. Phil hadn’t had the heart to open it with all the others. He knew that his brother Martyn had been given his too so there was no pretending to his parents that he didn’t have it. He had never failed a subject before and although his other results were brilliant he couldn’t shake the feeling that most of the attention would be on the harsh F in art. It was hard to compete with his older brother who was an amazing all-rounder, brilliant at sport and academics. Martyn tried to calm Phil down on the way home, after all of his friends had gone their separate ways and he was forced to talk to Phil. 

“It can’t be that bad,” he said “you never normally fail things. You haven’t opened it how do you know?” Phil supposed he was right but the feeling of dread stayed. He knew in the rational part of his brain that his parents wouldn’t be angry with him but he felt ashamed that he had done so badly in a subject. Phil sniffed, he felt too old to cry over something that would probably not affect his life in the future. 16 is too old for crying he thought, but he didn’t stop. Martyn was walking slightly ahead of him and hadn’t noticed Phil sniffling to himself. Phil’s mum was out in the garden shoving a bin bag into the bin when she saw them arrive. Instantly she saw Phil’s face and frowned with concern  
“Phil? What happened? Martyn, why is Phil crying?” their mum questioned them. Martyn turned around only now realising that Phil was upset. Martyn shrugged and walked inside. Phil was grateful that he let Phil tell their mum himself and that he wasn’t going to involve himself. Phil’s mum stood there, concerned and waiting for an answer. Phil didn’t answer but he opened his bag and pulled out his report card, handing it over and avoiding eye contact. His mum took it but didn’t open it. 

“let’s go inside and we can open it together. Is this what you’re upset about?” His mum asked. He was glad to have a parent like her. 

“Yeah,” he mumbled under his breath “please don’t be mad at me.” He followed his mum inside ad she put the kettle on and sat down across from him, still holding the unopened the report card. 

“Phil I’m not going to get angry at you. If you’ve failed things then we’ll sort it out. I can speak to the teacher, we could get you a tutor if you want. Don’t worry about it” His mum was trying to be kind but he knew she would be disappointed and that was what was destroying him most. His mum opened the envelope and looked at the piece of paper. She frowned and looked from the paper to Phil. 

“Phil. These are really good. What were you worried about? You’ve only got one D in art which isn’t the end of the world” His mum smiled at him. He breathed a sigh of relief. His grade wasn’t terrible. He wasn’t going to be kicked out of his house or shunned forever (it was only his brain that was telling him these things).

“I got a D? I thought I had failed completely. What are the rest like?” He grabbed the piece of paper from her and looked at it. All the others were As. He smiled. 

“Phil, I’m not a hundred percent happy with you nearly failing a subject. Do you have art tomorrow? You could ask your teacher what you need to do to improve and if you could get some extra help?” His mum stood up and started rustling around the kitchen, clearly finding something to prepare for dinner. Phil nodded. Though the thought of having to approach a teacher in front of the class and ask for help made him want to die a little bit on the inside, he knew that he couldn’t keep doing the subject without any help.   
Phil ate his dinner, decided his homework could survive until tomorrow and sat playing crash bandicoot until he felt exhausted. 

The entirety of the morning Phil was dreading having to speak to his teacher. Mrs. Michaels was a kind of mean lady who was about 50 years old and had clear favourites in class. Phil was not one of those favourites. He didn’t have art until after lunch which gave him way too much time to overthink about what might happen when he approached the teacher. The pupils in the class might whisper and think he was an idiot. Mrs. Michaels might say that the only solution would to be to drop the subject before he’s even sat the exam, which would give him the reputation of someone who has to drop out. He’d probably start crying if she yells at him. 

After lunch, Phil made sure to try and get to art before anyone else so that there would be fewer people to embarrass himself in front of. It was just his luck though, that Mrs. Michaels was held up chatting to someone in the corridor making her the last person to arrive to class. Brilliant. She shushed the class and told them to continue working on the work they had been doing last lesson. Phil stood up and walked over to her desk, the boy across from him at his desk- who Phil had been too awkward to learn the name of -looked up for a second then looked straight back at his own work. Before Phil reached her desk Mrs. Michaels gestured for him to come over to her desk. 

“Phillip, your mother phoned me this morning as she didn’t know if you would actually come and talk to me. She said you would like some help in improving your grade.” She smiled at him. Phil felt a little mortified that his mother had phoned but was grateful that she had as he didn’t have to explain to the teacher that she needed help. Phil nodded.   
“Yeah. I don’t know what I can do, it’s a little last minute but I’d like to try” Phil hoped that she would come up with some magical solution that would solve all of his issues and he would pass with flying colours and little extra effort. She stood up.  
“Daniel, come here please.” She shouted across the room. The other pupils in the class turned and looked from the teacher’s desk, at Phil and then over to Dan.  
“I know I didn’t want you two to work together cause it’s meant to be done by yourself but I think that in order for you to pass, you need some help.” The teacher smiled at Dan as he approached. He already looked as though he knew why she has called him over. Phil was mortified. How could she have disclosed that Phil was failing to a fellow pupil? Phil scrunched up his face, feeling like he wanted to cry again.

“Yeah?” Dan asked Mrs. Michaels once he had reached the desk. He was smiling. It was such a nice smile Phil thought, he wished he could bottle it up and keep it forever. That would probably be creepy though.

“I spoke to you earlier about maybe helping Phil with his work? It’s nearly the holidays so you don’t have much time but I can get one of the janitors to let you in over the break.” She looked between them. Dan was nodding and turned to Phil. 

“I’ve finished mine now anyway so I’ve plenty of spare time for you.” Dan grinned at him some more. Phil smiled weakly trying to join in on his happiness but it wasn’t quite working. They both nodded and Mrs. Michaels waved them away from her desk and went back to marking some essays that they’d probably end up never getting back. Dan put his hand on Phil’s shoulder stopping him before they got back to their desk. 

“Are you okay?” Dan looked down at Phil concerned. Phil nodded, trying to smile at him but Dan saw straight through Phil’s terrible façade. Phil loved how he had to look up at dan. He just felt safer, as unreasonable as that was. Dan raised his eyebrows at Phil, seeming to figure out why Phil was upset.

“You don't have to be embarrassed about being bad at something y’know. You should see me in maths!” Dan laughed and Phil quietly joined in. He was amazed that the person who he only spoke to a few times a week could figure him out so easily. That worried him a little as he must already know that Phil has a crush on him. He had never thought about Dan being bad at something. It made him think that he might view everything through warped rose-tinted glasses, putting people with flaws and struggles up on pedestals and making them seem like they were more than he was. He grinned at Dan, properly this time, not trying to hide anything. 

“Alright if you help me with art, I can help you with your maths,” Phil said, holding out his hand so Dan could shake it and it would be an official deal. Dan laughed at him and shook his hand. Sparks flew up Phil’s arm and he never wanted to let go. He wanted to just wander around holding hands with Dan forever. He let go before it became weird (it might have been a little too late for that). For a split second, he thought Dan had looked sad at the loss of contact as well but he decided he was just being an idiot and moved on.   
“Deal,” Dan joked “But you really have your work cut out with me. I literally can’t do any of it” Phil laughed. He loved the way Dan said “literally,” it made him sound posher than he was. Phil was tempted to joke back at him but they were standing in the middle of the classroom and he was fairly sure that the teacher was about to shout at them for dithering about. 

Ten minutes later, Phil was showing Dan his awful artwork and Dan was making appreciative noises and trying to reassure him that they weren’t that bad and that there were only a few things Phil could do to improve them. Phil felt like he enjoyed being lied to in order to be comforted but in this situation, it was entirely unhelpful. Phil chuckled and swiveled on his char to face Dan who was leaning over him. Their faces were almost too close for Phil’s liking.

“Just a few things? This whole thing is a mess,” Phil gestured wildly at the array of coloured paper on his desk, all lying in disorganised places. Dan frowned and moved things around.   
“See the technique on that one is nice, it’s more modern. I think you’re better at something like that,” Dan pointed to one of Phil’s most recent drawings. That one, in particular, was an accident, Lily had been gesturing too much during a conversation they were having and nocked a bunch of paint onto his canvas. Now that he looked at it, it didn’t seem bad at all just a little bit weird. For all the folio markers knew it was completely on purpose. Phil didn’t want to pretend to Dan that it was on purpose, he might go thinking that Phil actually had some artistic talent and this would be an easier job than previously thought.

“Yeah, but that one was an accident. Blame Lily” Phil pointed at Lily and she raised her hands in surrender then went back to drawing after she had thrown Phil a quick eyebrow raise at how close he and Dan were. Dan laughed, he threw his head back and scrunched his face up and Phil just wanted to stare at him forever. 

“No such things as accidents when you’re an artist” He laughed. Phil was probably the furthest thing from an artist that you could possibly get but the sentiment meant a lot to him. Phil tried to laugh along with him. He bit his lip and frowned down at the painting. He didn’t see how it could be made better, He looked up at dan quizzically and opened his mouth to ask when the bell rang indicating that they had to go to their next period class. Dan looked at him somewhat apologetically as they hadn’t really achieved much during their time. Everyone got up to leave and Dan purposefully waited behind on Phil. He stopped him as he was leaving the classroom.

“Can I get your phone number?” Dan asked. He laughed a little at himself and continued “Just so I can contact you about your art piece”   
Phil blushed. They stood there for a second then laughed again at their awkwardness.

“Ye-yeah of course,” Phil said a little too quickly. Dan took his phone out of his pocket and handed it to Phil. He put his number in quickly and smiled up at Dan before making a speedy exit to avoid anymore eye contact.


End file.
